|
|
|
"Alternate Modes"
When choosing a company to do business with, we all agree that customer service is high on our list of priorities. The following relates some types of practices a business should definitely avoid. Recently, we flew from Newark to West Palm Beach on...
Artic Tours
Take an Arctic Tour by flying north of Fairbanks to Dead Horse, on the northern edge of Alaska's North Slope. This unreserved wilderness area, stretching to an indescribable horizon at the Arctic Ocean, is home to caribou, grizzly bear, musk oxen,...
Experience Nature At Its Most Majestic With A Canadian Rockies Tour
Its time to get away. Life in the cubicle just isn't cutting it,
is it? No, you need space, adventure, air, real air, fresh,
rarefied, crisp sweet air filling your lungs with the endless
blue of the sky. A Canadian Rockies tour will help you...
Romantic Adventurer Mary Zalmanek is Interviewed by Sketchandtravel.com
Norm Goldman, Editor of the travel site, www.sketchandtravel.com and the book reviewing and author interviewing site, www. bookpleasures.com interviews romantic travel adventurer, Mary Zalmanek, who shares her expertise on the most romantic...
South African Sardine Run: Big Animals in Congregation
The sardine run along the east coast of South Africa is a spectacular and well-known phenomenon, but the seeds of our understanding are only now beginning to emerge. We now know that this is one of the largest marine events on the planet,...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Celebrating Chinese New Year (Lunar New Year)
Chinese New Year
Among the various celebrations and festivities for the Chinese,
Chinese New Year is always deem the most important of all.
Chinese families living in different part of the country or the
world will make it a point to gather together for Chinese New
Year (CNY). This is very similar to the Western concept of
getting together during Christmas.
Chinese New Year is also known as Lunar New Year as well as The
Spring Festival. The Chinese Year is also symbolized by an
animal, very much like the Western Zodiac. The animal to
symbolize CNY 2006 is The Dog.
Myths of Chinese New Year
There are many myths as to how Chinese New year came about.
The most common one is that in ancient China, every year, a big
monster would come out during the beginning of the year and
start devouring people and crops. One day, a villager suggested
firing off fire crackers, bang loud gongs and fly red banner to
try to frighten off the monster.
It worked! From then onwards, people would always fire off loud
fire crackers, beat gongs and drape their houses with red banner
to ensure the big, bad monster never return again. Till today,
Chinese New Year is still celebrated in the traditional manner.
Of course, that's just a myth. In reality, the Chinese uses a
Lunar Calendar which is different from the Georgian or Western
calendar, and so, the start of the Lunar new year is time for
celebration, very much like New year on the Western calendar. It
is also the time when crops are fully harvested and preparations
are made for the new planting year and people have some time to
rest and celebrate. This is why Chinese New Year is sometimes
known as The Spring Festival.
Start of CNY Celebrations
CNY celebrations starts with a reunion dinner on the eve of CNY.
This is where family members get together, no matter where they
are in the country or the world, and sit down for a good meal.
Reunion dinner is always celebrated at home but in recent years,
more and more families tend to have their reunion dinner in a
good restaurant.
After dinner, true to the Chinese nature, playing cards and
marjong tiles will appear and a gambling session amongst familiy
members will start. Once the clock strikes twelve, this is where
you will hear firecrackers and fire works being fired off
everywhere. The
firecrackers mark the official start of CNY.
In recent years, the Chinese government has clamped down on
firecrackers and fireworks in the cities because of fire
hazards. Today, the lighting of fireworks is most likely to
happen in the villages and countryside only.
Chinese New Year is celebrated with visiting of relatives and
friends. Everyone is expected to wear new clothes and shoes and
the popular color is obviously RED! There is always good food
and drinks and children are rewarded with red packets or
'hong-pow' from adults. These red packets will contain money and
is a major source of 'wealth' for children for the rest of the
year.
Adults will chit-chat and catch up with one another. They are
also likely to have gambling sessions with friendly stakes.
Meantime, children will be having new year goodies, games and
playing with fireworks.
In town centres and TV stations, there will be displays of
dragon and lion dance, acrobats, traditional chinese dance and
songs, stilt walkers, Chinese Opera, wushu performances and
other traditional chinese performances.
In the olden days, festivities will last for 15 days while
today, most people will celebrate for 3-4 days and spend the
rest of time at home.
Chinese greetings for Chinese New Year
If you have Chinese friends, do visit them at home during CNY
and you will be most welcomed. Make sure you learn a word or two
of CNY greetings.
The most common are:
"Gong Xi Fa Cai" - Have a prosperous new year
"Zu Ni Nian Nian You Yu" - Wishing you a abundant year
"Sing Nian Kuay Le" - Happy New Year.
Also, you may like to bring two oranges when visiting. This
indicates that you are bringing wealth to the family. If the
Chinese family is someone that you are familiar with, you may
even want to give red packets (containing a token sum of money)
to their children. If you have children, you are most likely to
recieve red packets for them as well.
About the author:
Ken Cheong worked, lived and travelled in China for the last
7 years. He contributes articles about Modern China and Oriental
Medicine and more articles can be found at his websites. Please
feel free to email him. You may distribute this article as long
as mention is made of http://www.chinese-culture.net and
http://www.quick-pain-relief.com
|
|
|
|
|
| Federal Aviation Administration - Home |
| The FAA is primarily responsible for the advancement, safety and regulation of civil aviation, as well as overseeing the development of the air traffic ... |
| www.faa.gov |
|
| LANDINGS Welcomes All Pilots & Aviation Enthusiasts to Aviation's ... |
| LANDINGS - aviation meeting place featuring: aviation news, up to date aviation databases (FAA Regulations, AIM, SDRs, NTSB Briefs, N Numbers and more), ... |
| www.landings.com |
|
| LANDINGS Welcomes All Pilots & Aviation Enthusiasts to Aviation's ... |
| LANDINGS - aviation meeting place featuring: aviation news, up to date aviation ... Welcome To The Busiest Aviation Hub in Cyberspace: Please Check-in... ... |
| www.landings.com |
|
| AWC - Aviation Weather Center |
| Aviation Weather Center Homepage provides comprehensive user-friendly aviation weather Text products and graphics. |
| aviationweather.gov |
|
| AIRLINERS.NET - A Breath Of Fresh Jet Blast |
| Discussions going on in the most active aviation forum online ... MyAviation.net - Just like Airliners.net but accepting all aviation photos! ... |
| www.airliners.net |
|
| Avhome.com - Your Link to the World of Aviation Featuring Aviation ... |
| The aviation search engine and directory. Featuring thousands of categorized links related to aviation and aircraft. |
| www.avhome.com |
|
| The Aviation History Online Museum |
| Browse through a selection of airplane photographs from the beginning of aviation history to the present day. Take a virtual tour of the Garber restoration ... |
| www.aviation-history.com |
|
| Aviation Week's AviationNow.com |
| Aviation news and information, with aircraft for sale, aerospace engineering, jobs and images. |
| www.aviationnow.com |
|
| Aviation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Aviation refers to flying using aircraft, machines designed by humans for ... Civil aviation includes all non-military flying, both general aviation and ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
|
| U.S. Army Aviation Warfighting Center and Fort Rucker |
| The US Army Aviation Center trains military, civilian, and international personnel in aviation and leadership skills. |
| www-rucker.army.mil |
|
| weather.com - Aviation Welcome |
| Aviation Maps View cloud ceilings, turbulence potential and other aviation maps. ... Share questions and answers with pilots and aviation enthusiasts. ... |
| www.weather.com |
|
| Aviation Safety Network |
| Resource centre for airliner accidents and civil aviation safety issues. |
| aviation-safety.net |
|
| Aviation Jobs, Aerospace Jobs, Jobs in Aviation, Cabin Crew Jobs |
| A recruitment agency for jobs within the aviation industry. |
| www.aviationjobsearch.com |
|
| NTSB - Aviation |
| US Government authority responsible for maintaining the standards of the US aviation industry. |
| www.ntsb.gov |
|
| Aviation.org |
| Org--the interactive website operated by Aviation Safety Connection, Inc.--addresses fundamental safety issues related to pilot performance. ... |
| www.aviation.org |
|
| Aviation |
| The aviation site at DTLR. Sections on environmental and noise issues, the future of air transport, the Heathrow Terminal 5 enquiry, air safety and other ... |
| www.dft.gov.uk |
|
| Canadian Aviation - Real Pilot Info for Canadian Pilots - Home |
| Your Canadian Airline, Aerospace and Pilot Portal. News, Webmail, Links, Metar Reports, Classifieds, Wallpaper, and Galleries that affect you in Canada. |
| www.aviation.ca |
|
| AVweb the internet's aviation magazine & news service |
| Aviation magazine and news service featuring aviation news, articles, searchable aviation databases, and on-line shopping. |
| www.avweb.com |
|
| EAA - The Leader in Recreational Aviation - Oshkosh, Wisconsin |
| Official Home of EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association), The Leader in Recreational Aviation, an international 170000-member organization encouraging and ... |
| www.eaa.org |
|
| Unusual Aviation Pictures |
| Aviation Pictures you don't see in the Paper Everyday. |
| www.aviationpics.de |
|
|